When undertaking a LCA for Green Star purposes does E-tool require peer review/certification for both the reference and proposed cases? Or is certifying the reference case sufficient?
At eTool, our best practice recommendation is to get both your Reference and Proposed designs certified. There are a number of benefits for this.
Namely:
1) You’ll be able to generate reports from any certified design without watermarks;
2) Getting your study reviewed externally is an additional means to catch big errors, if any;
3) The certified design is ‘locked’ which is actually a way to secure the study so that study audiences can feel confident that the study has not been altered (intentionally or unintentionally) after that point.
4) Some rating systems award points for getting your LCA externally reviewed.
Nonetheless, it is not an eTool requirement to have both your designs certified if you do not wish to take advantage of the benefits listed above.
We are preparing a life cycle assessment for Green Star Buildings v1.0 Credit 26 Life Cycle Impacts.
We are currently working towards Design Review stage submission.
GBCA has provided an FAQ F-00107 that advises, “For a Design Review submission, an external peer review is optional for the LCA conducted, noting that the LCA must be externally peer reviewed at the As Built stage.” (https://www.gbca.org.au/faqs.asp?action=details&faqId=107)
Could you confirm the requirements of timing of certification of LCA based on our understanding of Cerclos T&C: “If you would like to conduct an LCA study for commercial purpose where you will publish your results, our terms and conditions stipulate that you must get your study certified by us before you do so.” (https://support.etool.app/index.php/knowledgebase/certify-your-design/)
Does this require 2 rounds of certification, i.e. at Design Review stage and As-Built stage or only certification for the final LCA at the As-Built stage?
We generally advise users to submit their study for certification at the Design Review stage to ensure that they don’t get caught out at the As Built stage with large errors that they missed at the Design Review stage of their modeling which may affect their GS points. By then, the project may be at a significantly more difficult stage to implement changes/amendments.
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